Rocket Money Review (2024)

While some of the best personal finance apps focus on only one aspect of your finances, like budgeting or your credit score, Rocket Money is all-purpose. It has tools for financial account and transaction tracking, budgeting, subscription management, automated savings, and it gives you your credit score. It does all this in a lively, colorful, and attractive app, so it’s exceedingly easy to take care of your money quickly. Because of its simple budgeting tools and a bill negotiation service that can help you save a lot of money, Rocket Money is a good option for people trying to get out of debt. However, a few other personal finance apps are more comprehensive. Our top three recommendations and Editors’ Choice winners areSimplifi, which is best for most people;Quicken Classic,for those who want depth and detail; andYNAB,if traditional budgeting hasn't worked for you in the past.

How Much Does Rocket Money Cost?

Rocket Money is free to download and set up, but most of its advanced features are behind a paywall with an unusual pay-what-you-wish price, ranging from $4 to $12 per month, with the app suggesting $10 per month. You get charged annually, however, so you're looking at a minimum of $48 per year.

Other budgeting and finance apps are more straightforward with their pricing. Quicken Classic starts at $71.88 per year, and you often get a discount. Simplifi is $47.88 per year. NerdWallet and Empower are free, though aren't as comprehensive as Quicken or Simplifi.

If your free trial expires and you continue to use Rocket Money's free version, your personal finance tools are minimal, mostly account management and notifications. But Premium is quite a robust upgrade. In fact, I can’t really recommend Rocket Money unless you pay for Premium.

Premium gives you advanced budgeting and transaction management, subscription cancellation assistance, shared accounts, and comprehensive net-worth tracking. You have access to your credit score and a breakdown of its contributing factors, although that part isn’t quite as fleshed out as it is in Credit Karma.

Getting Started With Rocket Money

I like using Rocket Money more than most other budgeting and finance apps. Simplifi is a close second. Rocket Money has the edge when it comes to aesthetics, though. It’s quite colorful, lively, attractive, and intuitive to use. Its designers managed to include the most important data on the main dashboard without making it feel crowded. And links from that page take you to more detailed background information.

(Credit: Rocket Money/PCMag)

To use Rocket Money, you have to connect the app to both a savings and checking account. Other personal finance and budgeting apps don't require that. You get a seven-day free trial, and there's no option to simply start with a free account. The app automatically sets you up with a Premium trial that you have to cancel if you don't want to. Other than that, Rocket Money’s setup is similar to most other budgeting apps. It uses Plaid, a secure and well-known third-party service that connects data from your financial accounts to your Rocket Money account. Once that’s done, no further action is required. You’re ready to start working with the app.

Managing Transactions and Subscription Fees With Rocket Money

Transaction management is one of Rocket Money’s strengths. It automatically sends imported transactions to three places: the transaction register, a list of recurring transactions (like subscription fees), and your budget.

In the transaction register, you see a list of all transactions across all your connected financial accounts in a table. You can mark transactions as recurring or tax-deductible, and you can remove them from your budgets and everywhere else as needed. Rocket Money lets you add notes to a transaction and split one if, for example, you buy $100 of stuff from a store and want to classify $60 as groceries and $40 as pet food. You’re also allowed to create a rule so that every other transaction with the same vendor name will be assigned to a category of your choosing, renamed, or attached to a bill.

Rocket Money does a great job of guessing transaction categories, though I still recommend you check them. Its transaction management overall is superior to what I've seen in most other personal finance apps.

(Credit: Rocket Money/PCMag)

As mentioned, Rocket Money identifies any transactions that recur, such as subscription fees, and puts them in a list. The app asks if any of them are subscriptions that you want to cancel—and then it helps you cancel them. If a bill or subscription is missing, you can add it. Rocket Money can also help you keep track of free trials so you can cancel them before you get billed for them.

Rocket Money has another option to help you manage your fees and bills, although I was not able to test it. You can ask the app to try and negotiate a lower bill directly with companies. Rocket Money charges 40% of the annual amount you'll save in the first year. For example, if Rocket Money manages to lower one of your bills down such that you save $100 per year, Rocket Money takes $40. It's a steep fee, but you don't have to do any legwork. And if you're trying to get out of debt and Rocket Money can cut down more than one of your bills dramatically, the fees might be worth it.

Budgeting With Rocket Money

Rocket Money automatically starts budgets for you in multiple categories based on your current and previous spending. It calculates an average for each and shows you a six-month line graph with a link to related transactions. You have complete control over this content. You can adjust your budgeted amount and add or delete budgets.

The budget tools work just fine for people who want help assembling and monitoring a basic budget, but the app can’t compete withYNAB, which requires study and diligence but delivers unparalleled feedback and guidance. However, I like Rocket Money's budget better than Quicken Classic’s, which has extras like reports but lacks Rocket Money’s friendliness and polish.

(Credit: Rocket Money/PCMag)

One of Quicken Classic's benefits, however, is that it comes with numerous pre-built yet customizable reports, like Spending by Category and Cash Flow Comparison. Rocket Money does not, in part because it doesn’t have advanced support for investments and income taxes. However, the app does give you similar breakdowns of your finances through a variety of lists, tables, and charts.

Your Rocket Money Savings Account

Rocket Money offers a savings account through nbkc Bank, which is FDIC-insured. It's entirely optional to open this account and use it, and since it isn't an interest-bearing account, I don't know why you would. You fund the account by linking to it from a checking account and choosing how much you want to be transferred and at what intervals. Or you can set it to Autopilot and let the app monitor your checking account and transfer a few dollars every few days.

The record-keeping aspect of this program is nice, butCredit Karma has aMoney Save account with 5.10% APY as of this writing. That's a much better place to park a little bit of savings.

Short on Help, But Easy to Use

Rocket Money is short on help, but I didn’t feel the need to ever consult it because of the app’s smart design and simplicity. There are a few articles as well as support by email and chat, and you can explore Rocket Money in demo mode if you want to poke around without connecting your personal data.

Is Rocket Money Safe?

Rocket Money uses the most up-to-date industry protocols for storing your data, including bank-level 256-bit encryption. Your online banking credentials never touch Rocket Money’s servers, nor are they stored by the company in any way. Your financial data will never be accessed or used by any other party. For more information, see Rocket Money's security pagehere.

Verdict: Rocket Is Worth a Shot

Rocket Money makes it easy to see your financial profile quickly, and it looks great doing it. It’s an all-purpose personal finance manager that excels in areas like transaction management and the overall user experience. The cost seems high compared with the value you get from Editors' Choice winners Quicken Classic and Simplfi, and its budgeting tools are not nearly as advanced as what you get with YNAB. Rocket Money is good enough, though, that I recommend you check out the free trial and see if its approach to money management resonates with you.